Shanklin shows the grit to power Blues and Lions to new heights

Tom Shanklin takes on the Toulouse defence. Photograph: David Jones/PA

It doesn't take Tom Shanklin long to tot up the trophies of his rugby career. "I haven't won anything anywhere," he says. And then he remembers something: "Apart from two grand slams, that is."

He pauses. "A bit of an oversight, really. But I was thinking of my clubs." He played, like his father Jim, for London Welsh, before switching to Saracens and in 2003 to Cardiff. "No, nothing ... unless you count school, when we won the Rosslyn Park Sevens ... "

Now, though, the Cardiff Blues are heavily involved in the business end of the season, with the EDF Energy Cup final against Gloucester at Twickenham tomorrow and a Heineken Cup semi-final against Leicester on Sunday 3 May at the Millennium Stadium.

"Don't forget the Magners League," Shanklin says. The Blues are currently in eighth place out of 10, 23 points behind the leaders, Munster. "With a game in hand ... OK, OK, perhaps not the Magners."

So, it won't be a treble then. But simply to be in contention in any competition is new. "We have improved on two fronts," says the Blues centre. "We've made progress in terms of size and power, which allows us to compete physically with the best teams."

The centre partnership of Shanklin and Jamie Roberts proves how the Blues yield to no one in certain areas. "And then there's our mindset. Two or three years ago we might have found ourselves in tight games, like Northampton in the EDF semi and Toulouse in the Heineken quarter, and we would have lost.

"Now we seem to be able to dog out results. We've learnt how to shut games out. It's difficult to put my finger on what has changed, except that the core of this team has been through all the disappointing times together, and we've learnt something together. What it's like when things go against you ... "

For years the Blues were the most frustrating side to follow. They would carve a course to grand occasions in exhilarating style, and then collapse when it came to the crunch. Only last season, for example, they went to Toulouse for a Heineken Cup quarter-final and lost 41–17. Last Sunday they beat the same opponents 9–6.

"And we've brought in some very good players, like the three New Zealanders, Xavier Rush, Paul Tito and Ben Blair. Like all Kiwis, they're born and bred to win. They've performed for us year on year.

"But it's difficult to be precise about what's different ... I suppose there have been a couple of games this season which sum up how we are now. The first was the away win in Biarritz [10–6, in December]. Nothing flash at all about us that day, but we really stuck together. And that in itself teaches you something. Makes you want more.

"The other game would be from the same Heineken Cup pool, when we won away in Gloucester [16–12, in January]. It wasn't so much the victory, but that we were down to 14 players for 60 minutes, after Tom James was sent off. Instead of being anxious about finding ourselves up against it, it's as if we welcome it now."

Last week Shanklin went down with food poisoning and lost half a stone before the Toulouse game. If there's a new collective stubbornness about the Blues there's an ongoing defiance in their No13. Shanklin's role in the rise of the Welsh region – and his part in those two grand slams [in 2005 and 2008] that slipped his mind – cannot be overstated.

He says it took him a bit of time to grow accustomed to the blitz defence introduced by Shaun Edwards to the Wales team last year, but he is very much its linchpin now. He says it is useful having Leigh Halfpenny and Jamie Roberts around him, equally instilled in the disciplines of the defensive operation, and he also pays tribute to Gareth Baber, the defence coach with the Blues.

He says he even hears Edwards in his head when it comes to the all-important last few minutes of tight games. It is nevertheless one thing having gratitude and theory – and even voices – in your head and another to drag yourself up to make another flying tackle when every fibre of your being is telling you to lie down and have a rest. Shanklin is one very determined player.

As such, he would make an ideal tourist with the Lions, whose squad is to be announced on Tuesday. It is his cruel luck to play in the same position as Brian O'Driscoll but despite, by his own admission, not being quite as agile as he was when he was winning the Rosslyn Park Sevens, Tom Shanklin is still versatile enough to carve a place for himself in the Test squad. Make a name for himself, that is, and promptly forget all about it.

About this article

Rugby union: Tom Shanklin hails Cardiff Blues' new maturity

This article was published on
the Guardian website
at 19.21 EDT on Thursday 16 April 2009.
It was last modified at 19.21 EDT on Thursday 16 April 2009.
It was first published at 19.05 EDT on Thursday 16 April 2009.